Torture

From CNN:

U.S. Marines are on high alert. So are the CIA and the White House for that matter.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle also are ready to enter the fray.

All the fuss is over the Senate Intelligence Committee's $50 million investigation of Bush-era CIA interrogation tactics on detainees in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The long-delayed report on the use of torture - "enhanced interrogation techniques" - by the U.S. government is expected to be released Tuesday morning.

There's something to keep in mind when you're reading about the enhanced interrogation technique torture apologists saying it either worked or it was necessary in time of war: none of that matters.

Why?

Article 2.2 of the UN Convention Against Torture:

No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.

For those who don't care about such mundanities as legalities, the convention was signed by Ronald Reagan in April of 1988 and ratified by the US Senate in 1994.

It's US Law.

So when you hear that it was necessary because "we were at war", that still doesn't make it legal.

Before we prosecute the torturers, let's first prosecute those who gave the orders and made it happen.